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Beta Feature: Automations is currently in beta and available for OpenHands Cloud and OpenHands Enterprise users only.
The easiest way to create an automation is to ask OpenHands directly. The Automation Skill handles all the details—you just describe what you want.

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Prompt vs Plugin Automations

There are two types of automations:
Most automations are prompt-based. Just describe the task in natural language:
Create an automation called "Daily Standup Summary" that runs every weekday 
at 9 AM Eastern. It should check our GitHub repo for PRs merged yesterday 
and post a summary to #engineering on Slack.
This is all you need for reports, monitoring, data syncs, and most common tasks.
The agent will:
  1. Confirm the automation name and what it does
  2. Set up the schedule you requested
  3. Create the automation (with plugins if specified)
Once created, it runs automatically on schedule.

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What to Include in Your Request

When asking OpenHands to create an automation, include:
  • What it should do: Describe the task clearly
  • When it should run: Daily, weekly, every hour, etc.
  • Timezone (optional): Defaults to UTC if not specified
  • Name (optional): The agent can suggest one based on your description
  • Plugins (optional): Mention specific plugins if you need extended capabilities

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Writing Good Automation Prompts

The prompt is what the AI agent executes each time the automation runs. Write it like you’re giving instructions to a capable assistant.

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Be Specific

Generate a report

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Include Where to Send Results

Tell the automation what to do with its output:
  • “Post to the #alerts Slack channel” (requires Slack MCP)
  • “Save to reports/weekly-summary.md”
  • “Create a GitHub issue with the findings” (automatic if you logged in with GitHub)
  • “Send a message via the configured notification service”
Git providers you logged in with (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) are automatically available. Other services like Slack require MCP configuration.

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Specify Error Handling

For monitoring tasks, explain what should happen when things go wrong: 
Check the health endpoint at https://api.example.com/health.
If it returns anything other than 200 OK, send an alert to #ops 
with the status code and response body.
If it's healthy, just log success without alerting.

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What Your Automation Can Access

Each automation runs in a full OpenHands sandbox with:
  • Terminal access: Run any bash commands
  • File operations: Create, read, and modify files
  • Your LLM: Uses your configured model from settings
  • Your secrets: Access API keys stored in Settings > Secrets
  • MCP integrations: Use your configured MCP servers
  • Network access: Make HTTP requests, connect to APIs
  • Git provider access: Tokens from your Cloud login (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket) are automatically included

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Schedules

Tell OpenHands when you want the automation to run in plain language:
  • “every weekday at 9 AM”
  • “every Monday morning”
  • “hourly”
  • “every 15 minutes”
  • “first day of each month”
  • “twice a day at 9 AM and 5 PM”
The agent converts this to the appropriate cron schedule.
If you’re familiar with cron expressions, you can specify them directly: “Run on cron schedule 0 9 * * 1-5”

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After Creation

Once your automation is created:
  • It starts enabled by default and will run on the next scheduled time
  • You can view past runs in the OpenHands UI
  • Each run creates a conversation you can review or continue
  • You can disable, update, or delete it anytime (see Managing Automations)

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Next Steps